MEDIA RELEASE

30 May 2011

Zoo offers visitors first walk in ‘The Forest’this Queen’s Birthday weekend

This Queen’s Birthday weekend Auckland Zoo is offering visitors a first sneak peek of The Forest area of its new New Zealand development, Te Wao Nui, due to open in September.

The three-day only opening (Saturday 4 June to Monday 6 June, 10am to 3pm) is in celebration of World Environment Day (5 June) which this year has the theme ‘Forests; nature at your service’ to tie into the International Year of the Forests. A NZ Fauna keeper talk will take place in The Forest at 11.30am each day, and from its stunning viewing platform, you can see how construction of other areas of Te Wao Nui are coming along.

Originally the NZ Aviary (officially opened in 1992 and closed for redevelopment for the past four years), this area has been completely transformed to become The Forest. It is one of six ecological zones within Te Wao Nui – the Zoo’s biggest ever development, that encompasses almost a quarter of the Zoo’s footprint.

“This weekend’s a great opportunity to check out an amazing environment that will be home to some of our most precious native bird species come September, and to celebrate the vital role that forests play in keeping our wildlife and all of us, healthy,” says Auckland Zoo director, Jonathan Wilcken.

“For those keen to explore The Forest, we’re asking for a gold coin donation to raise funds to further protect forest habitat, so it’s also a great way to help.”

All the money raised will go to support two habitat restoration projects – a local project to replant the banks of Meola Creek, and an overseas project – protecting forest habitat in Sumatra’s Bukit Tigapuluh National Park, and visitors can choose which project they would like to support.

In celebration of World Environment Day, the Zoo has also joined forces with its friends from the Kaipatiki Project and Environment Centre. From 10am to 2pm each day, visitors can get hands-on for forests and help pot native seedlings that will then be used for local restoration projects.

Normal Zoo admission prices apply over Queen’s Birthday weekend. For more about World Environment Day and Te Wao Nui, visit www.aucklandzoo.co.nz

Ends

Notes to the editor
Habitat restoration projects
Restoring Meola Creek
Western Springs College and Pasadena Intermediate are among schools involved in Auckland Zoo’s Urban Ark for Schools programme - actively monitoring for plant and animal pests, working out how to eradicate them and coming up with a plan of action. These students have identified the need for plants to plant along the banks of Meola stream. Your gold coin donation will help raise funds for these schools to purchase plants for this project. Among many positives, these plants will help enhance water quality and reduce pollution, provide habitat for terrestrial biodiversity, slow run-off into the stream to prevent erosion, and help absorb carbon dioxide.

Protecting Bukit Tigapuluh National Park, Sumatra
Bukit Tigapuluh is predominantly lush virgin rainforest and is home to thousands of animal, plant and invertebrate species including tiger, orangutan and elephant. With your help, the Auckland Zoo Conservation Fund contributes $25,000 every year to help fund wildlife protection units. These units actively work to protect this vital habitat, discouraging illegal activity including logging.

Forests; Nature at your service
• Forests are the world’s most important repositories of terrestrial biological diversity, housing up to 90 per cent of known terrestrial species. That’s everything that lives on land!
• Forests animals have a vital role in forest ecology – such as pollination, seed dispersal and germination
• Trees capture and store carbon dioxide, produce oxygen for us to breathe and they provide habitat for many of the world's plants and animals.
• Forests help to conserve soil by reducing erosion and sedimentation, protect coastal areas, and stabilise sand dunes
• Trees can induce rainfall by cooling the land and transpiring water into the sky from their leaves. Just one acre of trees can put as much as 75,000 litres of water into the air each day.
• Worldwide, around 10 million people are employed directly in conventional forest management and conservation

ABOUT AUCKLAND ZOO
Auckland Zoo is an enterprise of Auckland Council. It is home to the largest collection of native and exotic wildlife species in New Zealand (over 720 animals and 117 species) and attracts over half a million visitors annually. It is becoming increasingly well-known nationally, and internationally through the award-winning television programme, The Zoo. At the heart of all Auckland Zoo's work and activities is its mission: "to focus the Zoo’s resources to benefit conservation and provide exciting visitor experiences which inspire and empower people to take positive action for wildlife and the environment". Auckland Zoo is a member of both the Zoo and Aquarium Association (ZAA) and the World Association of Zoos & Aquariums (WAZA).

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